The manically melodic call of the nightingale is a rare occurrence in Britain nowadays, however not at this rural location. Previously, a lone nightingale could be noticed at this remote location in rural Surrey; recently, they were all around. “We were hearing them chirping all night, from five different territories,” explains Meg Cookson, chief environmental expert for the Youngwilders. A team of Youngwilders were residing temporarily at the location, however the nightingales were so noisy, “we couldn’t sleep all night,” remarks Layla Mapemba. “We were all knackered the next day, but it was so amazing.” An professional from the Surrey Wildlife Trust came to help them capture and tag one of the songbirds the next morning, she remembers: “He’d never held a songbird in his hands before. He was crying.”
Rewilding Speeds Up at the Surrey Site
Rewilding is by nature a gradual process, but here at the farm, after only a short period, the outcomes are already visible, and audible. The land was once a sanctuary for equines. Today it’s a showpiece for the youth-led goal: to speed up habitat revival, in one of the biodiversity-poor regions in the planet, and to engage the younger generation (18-30-year-olds) with a natural world they are often denied access to, and a global warming issue they are often powerless to halt. Global heating persists, habitat loss damages wildlife homes, and another Cop summit ends with a disappointing outcome in Brazil – so who could criticize young people for choosing to initiate change themselves?
Our project was founded on the idea that there were landowners willing to let a bunch of youthful enthusiasts on to their property
“The younger generation is the best educated environmentally that there’s ever been,” states the group's co-director, one organizer. They are also “the deeply concerned in the challenges, and have played the least to their creation, and, then, are also going to suffer most as a result.”
Transformation of the Landscape
Currently, the organisation is expanding across the UK – and the original site started it all, in multiple ways. “It’s our origin point, and where we created our connections,” says a founding member, as she offers a overview of the expansive site. “This was previously six different fields,” she states, as we move through tall vegetation dotted with shrubs, surrounded by mature woodland. “The key visible difference is that we’ve removed all the fencing, a significant length of it, to give the sense like a unified environment.” In the recent season, they donned special clothing and cleared masses of invasive plants, an invasive species that can irritate the body. “We’ve introduced many of hedgerows,” notes the director. “But the main thing is we’ve just given it space for a short time. We’ve reduced a large part of livestock impact and seen what’s come up.”
Bushes and shrub lines are a perfect songbird habitat, she explains, however now they’re cutting back some of the thorny plants to establish a greater range of habitats and to join separate areas of the land. New trees will take a while to grow, but young trees from the surrounding oaks are already establishing themselves in the fields; the crew have been installing guards to shield them from wildlife.
Nature Reappears in Abundance
In addition to the songbirds – wildlife is coming back in droves. This year they’ve observed grass snakes, legless lizards, bats and invertebrates, notes another co-director, as he uncovers one of their reptile mats (like a doormat over a small hollow in the ground). “You get snakes and animals sheltering under there, but it’s likely a bit chilly for them now.” Organic homes, built using empty parts of tree trunk and buzzing with wild bees, are fixed to some of the plants. The absence of grazing horses has provided insects opportunity to prosper in the meadows. When they came to this time, states the director, “I’d never seen so numerous butterflies. There were just clouds of them. We were wondering, ‘What is going on?’”
Origins of the Project
The initial Youngwilders – Noah, Durant, Molly and more individuals – formed as youth, focusing on or having an passion in ecology. In the recent past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was predicting that the acceptable threshold of one and a half degrees of climate change was seeming impossible, Greta Thunberg was leading the demonstrations for environmental action, and campaigner another voice was addressing youth experiencing “environmental stress”. It was also the time of a writer's book, Wilding, on how the authors changed the Knepp Estate from a unsuccessful agricultural business into a flourishing natural habitat. “We were highly motivated by the case study, but what could be the role for youth?” asks Easton. “So we created a online presence and contacted numerous of conservation groups and were saying, ‘Do you occasionally get your property owners wanting to take action and you are short on time?’”
Durant adds the story: “Our complete project was essentially founded on the notion that there were individuals who were ready to permit a group of young enthusiasts on to their property indiscriminately, to decide on major choices that would change land value
